In cold or hot climates, it may be desirable to provide heating or cooling for personal comfort to an individual. For example, personal heating or cooling may be desired during activities such as skiing, camping, hiking, fishing, hunting, working, athletic activities, military and the like. In some instances, application of heating or cooling to injuries, sore muscles or in joints in cooling the blood to minimize brain damage, and the like may provide a therapeutic effect.
There are several known prior art apparatuses for providing personal heating and/or cooling for an individual. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 5,766,235, U.S. Pat. No. 5,514,170, and U.S. Pat. No. 6,514,279 provide various personal apparatuses. Prior art heated outerwear may utilize less efficient resistive heat and delivers the heat to areas of the body like the midsection or chest area. While heating the midsection or chest area provides heating, it does not effect a core body temperature change. Core body temperature changes are measurable orally by thermometer.
Personal thermal control devices, such as described herein, provide body temperature change. The thermal fluids or gels that may be utilized in other devices allows for a limited duration that the device may be utilized until the thermal energy is exhausted. Further, immediately upon use, the temperature of the device steadily increases or decreases as the thermal gel is heated or cooled by the user's body. Recharging the device for cooling may require placement in a freezer for a significant amount of time or replacement with a substitute thermal storage packet that has previously cooled. Other known devices that utilize electronic heating have short running times and do not efficiently heat the body.
The personal thermal control apparatuses and methods discussed herein provide heating and/or cooling utilizing thermal module. These apparatuses are positioned at the inner wrist pulse point area and or the inner ankle pulse point area in close proximity to major vasculature located at the skins surface and externally delivers constant thermal energy, hot or cold to a thermal plate designed to maximize surface area contact with the blood vessels near the apparatus that transporting blood in both directions at core body temperature. Heat transfer occurs with the blood, and the circulatory system distributes blood throughout the body. The circulation of heated/cooled blood provides the desired counter active change in core body temperature desired by the wearer. These personal thermal control apparatuses provide for efficient electric operation to reduce size and power requirements. The apparatuses provide improved operation time. In some embodiments, photo voltaic patches may be used in conjunction with a battery and could provide perpetual operation.